# The EU wants a Putin whisperer Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ft-news-briefing-73509/the-eu-wants-a-putin-whisperer Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ft-news-briefing-73509/the-eu-wants-a-putin-whisperer.md Podcast: [FT News Briefing](https://stenobird.com/podcast/ft-news-briefing-73509) Published: 2026-05-20T04:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/ftnewsbriefing/episodes/the-eu-wants-a-putin-whisperer Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/ftnewsbriefing/e/6a0ceaccbf331222890df4c8/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ft-news-briefing-73509/episodes/the-eu-wants-a-putin-whisperer Duration seconds: 669 ## Resource EU governments are discussing whether former leaders could represent the bloc in potential negotiations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and rising fuel prices have triggered deadly protests across Africa. Plus, we look back at US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell’s legacy as head of the central bank. Mentioned in this podcast: EU mulls Angela Merkel or Mario Draghi as possible Vladimir Putin whisperer Protests spread in Africa as fuel crisis deepens Powell, Trump and the battle for the Federal Reserve Want to get in touch? Email us at podcasts@ft.com Note: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts  Correction: This show has been modified from its original version. We said the Trump administration opened a lawsuit against Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell. The administration threatened a lawsuit. Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino , and produced by Katya Kumkova, Saffeya Ahmed, and Fiona Symon. Our show was mixed by Sam Giovinco. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann, and David da Silva. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s Global Head of Audio. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.  Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ft-news-briefing-73509/episodes/the-eu-wants-a-putin-whisperer/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/ft-news-briefing-73509/the-eu-wants-a-putin-whisperer.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.